Cricket

[Busaholic]

Two - although it could have been three if Ryan Harris had not been rejected by England in 2008.

Assuming all players fit, my joint XI at the moment would be

Warner
Rogers
Smith
Clarke
Root
Watson
Haddin
Johnson
Lyon
Harris
Anderson

If Ben Stokes can produce his best form more consistently he could be a viable replacement for Shane Watson, but at the moment I'd give that matchup to Watto and expect Mitchell Marsh to own that position in 2-3 years once Watto retires.
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With regards to England's First XI at the moment, the only players who should be automatic selections at the moment should be Root, Buttler and Anderson.

Everyone else should be up for discussion, even if some of them would inevitably hold their spots due to the lack of viable alternatives.

Cook for Rogers, definitely, and quite possibly Buttler for Haddin. Ali probably a better all-round cricketer than Lyon, and still developing. Don't assume Johnson is going to go mad in English conditions either, he's proved pretty iffy up to now.

Bell should be dropped immediately. Remember Bopara in 2009? England persevered with him on the back of those centuries against the Windies, until the Oval when Trott made his debut and the rest is history. Hales should come in - he exudes class, just needs some confidence to be shown in him.

 

[DownSouth]

Cook for Rogers,

That's a 50-50 call for Cook at best. The consistency of Rogers is worth the six runs he gives to Cook on his career average.

and quite possibly Buttler for Haddin.

Bye Bye Buttler to replace Haddin? You're having a laugh.

Ali probably a better all-round cricketer than Lyon,

But if you've got Watson, Smith and Johnson you can afford to select Lyon as a specialist bowler and not an all-rounder. Lyon is good enough to hang around and hold up one end for the last batsman standing to keep making runs at the other, and that's all he needs to do.

Don't assume Johnson is going to go mad in English conditions either, he's proved pretty iffy up to now.

Which English bowler would be superior in any conditions?

 

[DarloRich]

A better bowler in strictly English conditions? Anderson. The only debate for me would be Cook v Rogers. Tough on really. I would go Cook IF on form. As it is today Rogers wins.

There is no way Butler is better than Haddin as either a batsman or a keeper.

I think both sides lack a decent all rounder but would you simply do away with that role and pick another batsman or bowler based on the conditions of the day?

(all hypothetical of course!)

 

[Busaholic]

A better bowler in strictly English conditions? Anderson. The only debate for me would be Cook v Rogers. Tough on really. I would go Cook IF on form. As it is today Rogers wins.

There is no way Butler is better than Haddin as either a batsman or a keeper.

I think both sides lack a decent all rounder but would you simply do away with that role and pick another batsman or bowler based on the conditions of the day?

(all hypothetical of course!)

Rogers has already announced his impending retirement, which (a) could be jumping before he is pushed and (b) presupposes he makes the team, and Haddin's retirement has been much speculated on - too many players think they have one last series in them, particularly if it's the Ashes, and so many are proved wrong. Not every player is Mike Hussey! I will wager that Buttler comes out of the series with a better average than Haddin - the keeping I can't really comment on as I don't see enough of the cricket.

I'm not jingoistic, the last series in England I predicted to be 2-2 which it could so easily have been, and would have been a better reflection of the cricket played, England only being totally dominant at Lords.

 

[muddythefish]

Cook's a better player than Rogers - as his record shows. By the time he retires I expect him to break all sorts of records.

Haddin's a horrible piece of work and shouldn't be in any representative side.

 

[DownSouth]

Australia lead by 107 runs in the first innings, currently on 9/255 with Adam Voges having just charged through the 90s in five balls to score a century in his first Test innings after 160 First Class matches - the oldest player to score a century on debut.

Josh Hazlewood is looking rock solid at the other end (even if he's not scoring much) and they've seen off the second new ball, so this could still go on for a while.

Lyon is good enough to hang around and hold up one end for the last batsman standing to keep making runs at the other, and that's all he needs to do.

Point proven - in a match being dominated by the bowlers where the Windies went down for 148, the 22 he scored in Australia's first innings tonight in a partnership of 43 for the ninth wicket is certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Interestingly, six of the nine Australian wickets so far have fallen to the leg spinner Devendra Bishoo on a classic Roseau dust bowl, including one to bowl Haddin which has been compared to the Gatting ball which Warne bowled on the same date 24 years ago.

So should Australia have left out one of the pace bowlers (if so, which one?) to select Farad Ahmed as a second specialist spinner to exploit the conditions? I don't think so, best to always field your best eleven regardless of the conditions. It's worked so far - the pace bowlers managed to take eight wickets in running down the home side in 54 overs last night, even without any help from the pitch.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

Australia lead by 107 runs in the first innings, currently on 9/255 with Adam Voges having just charged through the 90s in five balls to score a century in his first Test innings after 160 First Class matches - the oldest player to score a century on debut..

Congratulations to Adam Voges and to the Australian selectors for picking him. Had the English selectors chosen a 35 year old batsman for his debut, no doubt they would have been pilloried. Should always pick the best team, irrespective of age.

 

[DownSouth]

And he'll have to wait until his next innings (possibly even the Second Test) to get a Test average - he finished on 130 not out when Hazlewood got out for 39 to better his previous best score by seven runs.

Australia bowled out for 318 makes a first innings lead of 170, a lead 22 runs greater than the Windies' first innings total. As their reward for bowling Australia out, the home side gets to face 13 overs of fire and brimstone before close.
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The last wicket was also Hazlewood's first time getting out in Test cricket, he now has an average of 71
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Congratulations to Adam Voges and to the Australian selectors for picking him. Had the English selectors chosen a 35 year old batsman for his debut, no doubt they would have been pilloried.

Indeed.

Perhaps there's another potential excuse for throwing Kevin Pietersen on the scrapheap there, he turns 35 in just a few weeks.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There was excitement right up to the last ball of the match yesterday in the Yorkshire v Lancashire NatWest T20 Blast fixture, as Lancashire overtook Yorkshire to win off the very last ball of the game, being helped in a very large part by Buttler actually appearing for Lancashire for a welcome change and scoring 71 not out from only 35 balls, with 5 x 6 and 5 x 4.

 

[Busaholic]

Australia lead by 107 runs in the first innings, currently on 9/255 with Adam Voges having just charged through the 90s in five balls to score a century in his first Test innings after 160 First Class matches - the oldest player to score a century on debut.

This must offer hope to Glen Chapple, aged 41 and currently playing his 311st first class match, having played one ODI for his country where I believe he didn't even get to bowl before it was rained off! On his return to the Lancashire side today he scored 29 not out from 13 balls at no. 11 to help his side get a second batting point. He hasn't yet bowled.

Alec Stewart has confirmed that Pietersen has probably played his last 'red ball' match for Surrey, or probably anyone, with a score of 2 against Lancs: he has taken his begging bowl to the Caribbean League (yes, I know, I'll cop it on here for saying that, but it's my sincere belief).

 

[DownSouth]

If there's any begging going on between the CPL and Kevin Pietersen, it's not from Pietersen's end.

I thought we did the "that was his last first class match" routine about a month ago?

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

This must offer hope to Glen Chapple, aged 41 and currently playing his 311st first class match, having played one ODI for his country where I believe he didn't even get to bowl before it was rained off! On his return to the Lancashire side today he scored 29 not out from 13 balls at no. 11 to help his side get a second batting point. He hasn't yet bowled.[

When he did have a bowling spell, he did quite well for a 41 year old and returned figures of 12-2-39-1 in the Gloucestershire first innings of the match played at Bristol.

Gloucestershire's reply was a match of two bad parts with an excellent middle section. They slumped to 72-5 then no wickets fell till the score reached 239, but from that point they were all out for 277, a first innings lead of 2.The two main Lancashire seamers both took four wickets each.

 

[Whistler40145]

That's quite economical, Glen Chapple has done extremely well at the age of 41, normally a pace bowler would've retired by now. I'm quite surprised Lancashire haven't fielded a front line spinner.

 

[Cletus]

Surprisingly no mention of today's England ODI victory.

Is everyone in shock?

 

[Whistler40145]

A marked improvement by England in ODIs, most impressed, especially the batting of Joe Root, Joss Butler & Adil Rashid, then the bowling of Steven Finn & Adil Rashid.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Surprisingly no mention of today's England ODI victory.

Is everyone in shock?

Shock may well be the term to describe an England batting performance that saw then post an amazing total of 408-9 in a 50 over ODI against New Zealand, with two of the team posting centuries.

Buttler, batting at number six, scored 129 from 77 balls, with 5 x 6 and 13 x 4

Root scored 104 from 78 balls, with 2 x 6 and 13 x 4.

 

[Johnuk123]

Surprisingly no mention of today's England ODI victory.

Is everyone in shock?

They were brilliant yesterday no doubt about it but unfortunately one day cricket just doesn't have the interest of test cricket.

 

[ExRes]

Surprisingly no mention of today's England ODI victory.

Is everyone in shock?

One swallow does not a summer make and all that, England are basically a 2nd XI at international level, it will take an awful lot more before the bunting needs to be dusted off

 

[Whistler40145]

Maybe we caught the Kiwis on a bad day or a very good batting wicket?

 

[gswindale]

Maybe we caught the Kiwis on a bad day or a very good batting wicket?

A bit of both I would guess.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I don't know if anyone had noticed but both Boult and Rashid had identical bowling returns in that ODI match:-

10 - 0 - 55 - 4

 

[DownSouth]

Maybe we caught the Kiwis on a bad day ...

Yes, that would be a big part of it - of their first-choice attack which peaked with their win in the Chappell-Hadlee Trophy* a few months ago, only one (albeit their best, Trent Boult) was there in this match against England. Daniel Vettori has retired, Adam Milne is still out injured, Tim Southee and Corey Anderson were rested after the Tests.

For NZ with its small talent pool (the whole population is only just over four times the number of cricketers in England/Wales), finding four replacement bowlers is not as easy as it is for teams like Australia or England where there are others who are very close to getting into the side. Out of the replacements McClenaghan, Henry, McCullum and Santner, only Henry would be likely to get a place in an Australian domestic List A match, and even then not for NSW or WA.

I imagine that the NZ coach Mike Hesson will be furious with Brendon McCullum, that's the second ODI in a row where the team has had a heavy loss after he's thrown away his wicket with a stupid slog in the first over of their innings.

Good to see Adil Rashid and Steven Finn do well, they are both players I love to watch and they will be critical for England at the 2019 World Cup - and the qualifiers if they don't move up the ranks soon. Four wickets to derail the NZ chase will be good for Finn, next time the high performance lunatics try to tinker with his action he can tell them where to put their laptops.

Who on earth is Sam Billings? He was dismissed for three, and despite batting as low as seven for England he didn't bowl either. Did he win the spot in a a radio station promotion or something?

* the trophy was only contested in their World Cup pool match against Australia, not in the World Cup Final.

 

[Whistler40145]

I wonder if Adil Rashid would be considered for the Test squad?

 

[tony_mac]

I think the big shock is that England actually attacked, and kept attacking even after losing a couple of quick wickets. I thought you were supposed to score no more than 3 an over from 25-40....

And, another win for Lancs in div 2. Gloucs. chasing 250, looking good on 110-2, but all out for 160. At Southport recently, Lancs played 2 spinners who won the game on day 4 - this time no spinners were picked and the seamers won it, which looks rather like good team selection (even if Chapple didn't contribute massively to the bowling stats).

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

And, another win for Lancs in div 2. Gloucs. chasing 250, looking good on 110-2, but all out for 160. At Southport recently, Lancs played 2 spinners who won the game on day 4 - this time no spinners were picked and the seamers won it, which looks rather like good team selection (even if Chapple didn't contribute massively to the bowling stats).

Emulating the very best tradition of England middle-order collapses in Australia, Gloucester serenely moved on from 113-2...to 119-7 in no time at all..hock:

The Lancashire seamer, Jarvis, who took four wickets in the Gloucestershire first innings decided to go one better in their second innings with 21-8-39-5 as an excellent bowling return.

 

[backontrack]

Who on earth is Sam Billings? He was dismissed for three, and despite batting as low as seven for England he didn't bowl either. Did he win the spot in a a radio station promotion or something?

He's Kent's wicketkeeper, and is meant to be something of a wicketkeeper-batsman in white ball games.

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

I wonder if Adil Rashid would be considered for the Test squad?

I think it would be very unusual for England to choose a leggie for home tests....in my lifetime I can only recall Hobbs, Salisbury and Schofield...none had any success. However, when England play Pakistan later on in the year, Rashid and Moeen will be an interesting combination!

 

[Buttsy]

I think it would be very unusual for England to choose a leggie for home tests....in my lifetime I can only recall Hobbs, Salisbury and Schofield...none had any success. However, when England play Pakistan later on in the year, Rashid and Moeen will be an interesting combination!

How about Eric Hollies, the man who denied Bradman the 100 average...???

 

[Arglwydd Golau]

How about Eric Hollies, the man who denied Bradman the 100 average...???

Sorry....I did say in my lifetime!! Just looked him up, 13 tests, 44 wkts. As you stated, probably best known for that ball to Bradman!

 

[Busaholic]

Sorry....I did say in my lifetime!! Just looked him up, 13 tests, 44 wkts. As you stated, probably best known for that ball to Bradman!

Tich Freeman and Doug Wright, both Kent men, the latter in my lifetime and I might possibly have seen him play at one of the first Kent games I ever attended ,but don't remember. Legspinners can take a lot of wickets in English conditions, apart from the two obvious ones look at Mushtaq Ahmed and that fellow at Essex whose name I've happily forgotten, but succeeded in corrupting a young fast bowler into accepting money for spotfixing.

Michael Vaughan has been calling for Rashid to be brought into the test team for some time, and he's a proper batsman and fine fielder to boot. If Mooen Ali is deemed only worthy of the no. 8 spot why not try Rashid in it?